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Comment by mycodendral | Hacker News Reader

I don't buy it, personally. I used to be a big psych guy until I had multiple friends get in dangerous police situations because of them. And I've heard a lot more individual stories. Pretty much every psychedelic festival has people ending up in the security/medical tent. It's not as risk free as people will have you believe.

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How many of them get there from intentionally jumping of a roof or carving up their arm? I suspect most are simple dumb accidents, like people have with alcohol, but of a different variety.

Have you been around someone experiencing psychedelic induced psychosis? They are often quite a danger to themselves and others. Usually requiring sedative/chemical restraint & police intervention by EMS. Ask any EMT about this.

Yes, I have seen several, including one that had to be forcibly sedated in the dirt. I have also seen many drunks fighting others and police.

Over 15 years at burning man, I have seen many people injured and maimed doing stupid things while high.

That said, the type of intentional self harm described above is basically unheard of. Mostly dumb accidents and some suicides.

To the extent there is any unique risk, it is more about long term psychiatric issues

Don’t buy it however you like, actual data does not support your claim. How do you know those people ending up in the med tent only took LSD or psilocybin?

Med tent is mostly people overheating because it's a summer dance festival and water is often scarce.

I'm talking about the people experiencing hypomanic/psychotic episodes, not heat exhaustion.

Studies that look at mushrooms in a controlled therapy session are not the same as unreported/unstudied crises at high intensity parties.

Then go read the study I linked, because it analyzes coroners data and tox reports from deaths linked to substance use. Guess what? None of the deaths where people were jumping out of windows, jumping into lakes, etc "from mushrooms" were psilocybin use.

You're doing everybody a disservice by spreading FUD that is contradicted by real world studies and data. It's no better than what Nancy Regan tried (and for the most part succeeded) to do.

I'm not here to argue the stats, I'm just sharing my personal anecdotes from doing psychs 100s of times and going to dozens of psych festivals. My username is mushroom brain. I'm just sharing that it's not all enlightenment and these drugs come with risks. The odds may be low statistically but the consequences can be very high.

The pendulum has swung so far left from the Reagan propaganda to the point that people attempt to downplay any cautionary perspectives and act like these things are purely harmless spiritual panaceas.

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